United: Not shit
When Manchester United win the Premier League, plenty of people will dismiss their achievement as ‘the worst Premiership winners ever’. The team is clearly not up to snuff on talent. However if you consider the obstacles they’ve overcome, then Manchester United deserve plenty of praise.
The season started, as did last, with underinvestment. Nothing was spent at all in the winter window. Chelsea bought David Luiz, Fernando Torres and, prior to that splurge, the increasingly effective Ramires. Arsene Wenger has money, but seems to enjoy moralising about it as much as he does handicapping himself by not using it sensibly. Ferguson was given £6 million for Javier Hernandez – then considered a long-term punt, not a sure thing – and twice that for Chris Smalling, who’d played few Premiership games, yet the team integrated these players with ease.
But a lack of funds cost United – not just with players they failed to sign, but in the players who remain, who in past years would have been replaced. Darron Gibson, such a poor performer he is nicknamed ‘The Void’, remains. Gabriel Obertan must simply be thankful that Bebe stops him being the club’s worst winger. At Newcastle, Michael Owen was linked with Manchester United… and Hull. In a parallel universe where United have money, Michael Owen is at the KC Stadium. On the bench.
Perhaps given the financial constraints placed on United by the Glazers, it should have been expected that Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Edwin Van Der Saar would all be used as much as their bodies permitted. Van Der Saar has defied his age to have a fine season. Paul Scholes remains capable of dominating lesser opponents, and still has worthwhile experience to close out bigger games. Ryan Giggs looks to have faded not at all, comfortably dismissing Chelsea in the Champions League. Few other squads contains veterans with such determination. In fact, Chelsea got rid of Michael Ballack, and Arsenal lost their vets long ago.
The squad suffered injuries like any other club, but would any other have stayed at the top with the injuries (if you include a retirement) of Gary Neville, Rio Ferdinand, Rafael, Anderson and Antonio Valencia? Comparing the struggles of Arsenal without Cesc Fabregas and Thomas Vermaelen, and Chelsea making a poor fist of things without Drogba and Lampard , then Manchester United have coped with least waves. Valencia, back from a horrific injury, is stoicism personified. He represents in microcosm United’s finest qualities.
Where poor form has held back competitors, United squad members have stepped up. Michael Carrick is having an even worse season than last, Patrice Evra hasn’t got over his World Cup union moment, and Gary Neville was so bad in the end, he gave up football.
Despite that, Wayne Rooney has still been the most disappointing performer, yet the squad was able to find others to come to the fore. Dimitar Berbatov leads the scoring charts. Nani might have been player of the year. Rafael has become the sexiest type of Brazilian footballer. The competition’s problems are that while senior players such as Fabregas and Lampard have struggled, nobody else picked up the slack.
Considering the injuries and lack of funds United deserve respect. Perhaps not Nani for his diving and not Rooney for all his off-pitch activities, but they’re clearly a special team. They even got over the most ludicrous moral panic since Snoop Dogg showed up on The Sun’s radar in the Nineties, coping silently with Rooney’s ban for swearing to remain top. They’re not the most talented, and they have many failings not even discussed here, but they have some of the finest qualities of any squad.
